


When You Wish Upon a Star

by Renoku



Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Canon Backstory, Clevercorgi, Constellations, Cuddling & Snuggling, Cute, Dorks in Love, Established Relationship, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Gift Fic, Gift Giving, Kissing, M/M, Magic, Quests, Stars, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-06
Updated: 2014-09-06
Packaged: 2018-02-16 10:11:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2265822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renoku/pseuds/Renoku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Jack snuggled close into Aster’s side.  “Thanks, Aster,” he murmured, smiling against the fur.</em><br/><em>Aster buried his nose in Jack’s hair, sniffling quietly.  “Anything for you, love.”</em><br/>----------<br/>Or: the one where Aster loves his mate a lot, and is worth more to the Universe than he thought he was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When You Wish Upon a Star

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CleverCorgi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CleverCorgi/gifts).



> For Corgi, who's an awesome writer who deserves an awesome birthday! (Hope you had one, btw.)

They were lying on the steep hillside that overlooked the vast expanse of the Warren when Aster asked the question.  With Easter just past, he’d been relaxing, winding down from the holiday with absent sketches in his smaller books, losing track of time with the outside world. It wasn’t the first time; he often lost himself in his Warren, going ages without a breath of the surface.

And with Jack here in the summer months, it became even easier to do so.

Aster’s paw paused over the sketchpad, the light sound of graphite scratching on the paper cutting off as a thought occurred to him.  He blinked once down at the image in his lap.  Twice.

After another moment, he dared a look up at Jack.  The sprite hadn’t noticed the break in Aster’s actions yet, but Aster doubted he’d even paid any attention to him in the first place.  Instead, the boy was plucking at the grass, laughing quietly at the last straggling trails of eggs that stumbled past, unfinished in time for the eggs hunts, but not old enough yet to go rotten.  They tottered along the hillside, some slipping and rolling in the soft grass down to the bottom.  Jack only helped this along, blowing small ice patches across the blades underneath their small feet.

Jack let out a sharp guffaw as one tripped up on some slush, tumbling off to the side and careening into two others on its way down, sending the lot of them into the Colored River down below.  At the loud splashes, Jack winced, his shoulders shrugging up to his ears.  He shot a quick look Aster’s way.

“Sorry, Bunny,” he said. “I didn’t think it’d be that loud.”

The words registered vaguely in Aster’s ears – Jack knew that he liked the quiet when he sketched – but he only continued to stare at the sprite.  He looked up at Aster through his bangs, lying on his stomach with the grass curling around him.  Bare feet dangled in the air, elbows propped up hands propped up his chin, and he looked relaxed, even with the slight frown on his face and the worried crease at his eyes.  With his hood loosely pulled up over his white hair, he looked completely at home. He looked like he belonged.

The realization hit Aster square in the chest, like it did every time he thought about it. It happened at the most immediate moments, like a shock of cold that burned through his body starting at his head and ending at his heart, leaving behind a thrumming warmth beneath his skin. When he saw Jack wandering through the Warren, when the boy flitted around their – _their_ – Burrow, doing whatever he does at any point of the day, when the sprite hugged him close and kissed his nose and laughed when it scrunched up because “seriously, Cottontail, you look so cute when you’re grumpy!”

When they lay awake in their nest, barely breathing in the quiet, holding each other close as the sound of their hearts filled to the walls around them.

“Aster?” asked Jack, his voice breaking through the Pooka’s thoughts.  “Is everything alright?”

The crease between his brows had deepened, and one foot fell to the grass.  Aster shook himself, shaking his head.

“Everything’s fine, Frostbite,” he replied, smiling softly.  “Just thinking.”

The tension left Jack’s form immediately, and a grin broke out across his face. “Really?” he asked, the tone of his voice dropping lowly.  “What about?”

Aster sniffed, and his back straightened under the sprite’s gaze.  Jack grinned, his eyes lidded with his smile as he peered up at the Pooka.  An odd heat flooded into Aster’s cheeks, hidden beneath his fur.

“Um… ahem,” Aster cleared his throat, averting his gaze.  “I just thought – I don’t know how old you are.”

Jack’s smile dropped, and his entire body seemed to fall against the grass.  The still air of the Warren even kicked up a small breeze in the minute silence, ruffling Jack’s bangs as they blew away from his face buried in his now folded arms.

Aster held his breath. This – what they had – their relationship; it was so new, in spirit terms.  And yet in moments of relaxation like this, with just the quiet peace of the earth surrounding them and without anything to fight against, he forgot just how temporary everything in his eternal life could be. He swallowed once. Hope blossomed low in his chest, swirling alongside his breath like a bare flicker against the wind that stirred through his fur.

But Jack didn’t look upset.  He just looked… thoughtful.

After a few more moments, the sprite finally broke the tense quiet.  “I don’t know,” he answered carelessly, shrugging.  “I’d say it’s a little more than three hundred years, give or take a decade.  I wasn’t really able to check the date way back when I first got out of the ice.” With a light groan, he rolled over, the blades of grass beneath his body curving to fit the shape of his broad shoulders when he settled on his back.  “I lost track of it after a while, you know? Didn’t really seem to matter.”

Aster nodded; he did know. Eons of dormant hibernation made a person forget about time.  Immortality simply made it obsolete.  If it weren’t for the holidays that occupied their work, Aster would have lost all sense of the world a long time ago.

“What made you think of that?” Jack asked, breaking the silence once again.  He was staring up at the Warren’s rock ceiling, hands folded behind his head and the hem of his hoodie riding up his torso. Aster caught sight of a strip of snow-white skin, but looked away once more.

For some reason, today didn’t feel like a day for that.

He shrugged, turning back down to look at his sketchbook.  “Just wondering,” he said.  “Never really thought about it, that.”  His paws tightened on the edges of his paper, just slightly.

Jack snorted a little at that, rolling over again to face Aster.  “You think too much, Cottontail.”

A smirk adorned his lips, half hidden where his head was pillowed in the crook of his elbow. His blue eyes sparkled in amusement, and Aster felt his stomach melt just a little at the rush of Joy that passed through his body.  He shivered, just barely a tremble of his body.

Jack’s smile faded into another contemplative frown.  They held each other’s gaze for several minutes, relaxing into the quiet.

Finally, Jack uncurled, splaying out across the grass with a loud grunt.

Aster eyed him, confused. “What?” he asked.

“Mm… It’s warm,” Jack murmured, wiggling deeper into the grass.  His eyes fell closed, the light of the Warren falling across his face, shadowed dimly by his hair.  “I guess it doesn’t matter,” the boy mused.  “I mean we both know you’re old as dirt.”

Aster made an affronted noise deep in his throat, some cross between a grunt and a snort. “Am not!” he objected, glaring at the boy.

“Yeah,” Jack giggled, “you are.”

Aster picked a blade of grass and flicked it at the boy.  It landed right on his nose, and he let out a small yelp, laughing as it tickled his face.  His entire body curled up with his laugh, his feet jerking up off of the ground.  The sound filled the space around them with a solid wind, and Aster smiled.

Jack flopped back down, arms extended above his head.  Eyes half-lidded, he turned his head to gaze at Aster. The Pooka felt another shiver jolt down his spine, and he stared back down at his sketchpad.

“Aster,” Jack said softly, laughter still painting his voice.  “Come here.”

“What?” Aster grunted, glancing up.

“Lay with me,” said Jack. His voice had dropped low, completely and utterly ridiculous, and Aster shot him a glare.

“You’re not funny, Frost.”

Jack laughed again. “But you love me anyway.”

Aster sighed and set his sketchpad down on the grass.  “That I do,” he muttered, scooting over on the hillside to lie down next to Jack.

The sprite curled into his side immediately, hands fisting into his fur.  They both let out a breath, and Aster felt the cold breeze against his chest.  He smiled at that, the way Jack cooled him down just by being there.  He wrapped an arm around Jack’s shoulder, rubbing the thumb of his paw between the boy’s shoulder blades, and folded his other behind his head, leaning down to place a chaste kiss to the top of Jack’s head.

Everything fell together, and everything felt so right.

They lay like that for a while, just breathing and relaxing with each other.  The ground felt soft beneath them, the grass barely tickling against Aster’s fur.  Days like this, where there was no work to be done, nothing really to worry about, Aster loved. He loved sitting here beside Jack, beside his mate, and bathing in the experience of life and the relief that they were still alive.

Eventually, because really asking Jack to sit still for an entire day was just unrealistic, the sprite opened his eyes and asked, “How does it work?”

“Hmm?” Aster grunted, eyes still closed and refusing to acknowledge any need to move.

“The light in the Warren,” Jack reiterated.  “The sun can’t reach down here.  How’d you get it to work?”

Aster opened one eye and peered down at the sprite stretched across his chest.  Jack stared up at him with wide eyes, curiosity shining in his blue gaze.

Sighing, Aster closed his eyes again and said, “I got it from a Constellation.”

“What?” Jack asked. Aster could hear the confusion in his voice.

“Before the Earth was created, there were other worlds,” Aster began to explain. “Constellations, they were called. Manny came from one of them, the House of Lunanoff.  The first Constellations gave the First Light to the Pookas, my people.  After Pitch… At the end of the Golden Age, I brought the First Light to Earth.  It wasn’t much then, just barely a rock floating in space.  But the First Light changed that.  It gave the planet Life, and Hope.  I keep it deep in the Warren, right next to the Earth’s core, but it’s bright enough to light up this place in the day.”

Jack was quiet after Aster finished, so quiet that the Pooka had to open his eyes. The boy was looking at Aster’s chest, running his fingers through the fur lightly.  But then, he suddenly snorted with laughter, shaking against Aster’s side.

“What?” Aster asked, almost offended.  “What’s so funny?”

“It’s nothing!” Jack laughed, rolling back in Aster’s grip.  “It’s just – you really are old as dirt!”

“Am not!” Aster said. “I’ll have you know that dirt definitely existed before I was born on the Pooka home planet, and it is just the same as the dirt here, if not better!”

“Sure, Bunny,” Jack replied, settling down.  He patted Aster placidly on the chest, curling back in.  “Whatever you say.”

Aster took that as the end of the conversation, and laid back down for a nap.  However, Jack never could sit still.  Every few moments, the sprite murmured something, another question, or just a random thought, never seeming to stop talking. Aster didn’t mind. He understood; when you’ve got no one to talk to for centuries at a time, you start to talk to yourself, just to fill the silence.  He liked the change, having someone to talk to.  He knew that Jack felt the same.

They remained like that until the light began to dim in the Warren, and Jack cut off his small monologue about hummingbirds and snowstorms when he realized how dark it’d gotten.

“How does it do that?” he asked, as if just realizing that it could get dark in the Warren, never mind that he’d spent the majority of each year here since they’d started their relationship.

“What do you mean?” Aster asked, smiling softly down at the sprite in his arms. They were both curled on their sides now, facing each other across a small space of grass, close enough that their words brushed across the other’s cheeks when they spoke.

Jack sat up, looking around.  “How does it get dark if the First Light is still here?”

Aster made an impatient noise and pulled Jack back down.  “The Earth rotates, you gumby.  Remember that?”

Jack frowned, but fell back against the grass.  “I don’t get it.”

“What’s not to get?”

Jack huffed, glaring at Aster, but there wasn’t any heat behind it.  “You’re terrible at explaining things.”

“I am not!” Aster exclaimed, affronted.

Jack chuckled, scooting closer to Aster.  He hooked his ankle behind Aster’s leg, smiling.  “It doesn’t matter.  It works.” He leaned forward to kiss Aster on the mouth.

Aster hummed appreciatively, smiling against Jack’s lips.  But before he could open his mouth, Jack leaned back.

“What were you drawing earlier?”

“Hmm?” Aster asked. “Oh.”

He rolled over to reach behind him, legs still interlocked with Jack’s.  His paw wrapped around the rough edges of his sketchpad, and he brought it back between them.

Jack smiled down at the drawing.  “It’s really good, Bunny.”

It was a picture of a star.  The graphite around it dimmed in shade, accenting the glow of the shape that adorned the paper. Dreamsand swirled around it, highlighting the star like a splash of water, bursting forth from the page. As modest as Aster was, he had to agree with Jack.  It was one of his better sketches.

That was another thing Jack did; he made Aster modest.  The Pooka huffed a small laugh under his breath, looking down at the page.  The things North would say if he saw what this sprite had changed.

Jack sighed, rolling over on his back, his hand finding Aster’s between them on the paper. “It would be nice to have stars down here,” he commented absently, eyes scanning the darkening cavern ceiling high above them.

“What are you talking about?” Aster asked.  “We have the fireflies.”

Jack smirked at his mate. “They aren’t stars, Cottontail. You’ve slept under the stars before, haven’t you?”

“Of course,” Aster replied, sniffing as he rolled over as well.  His mind began to work, connecting pieces together like specks of Dreamsand in his thoughts.

“I only sleep up there in the winter, now,” said Jack, sounding wistful.  “The stars are beautiful when there aren’t any clouds. It’s like snow across the sky.”

Aster smiled, and he squeezed Jack’s hand.

He knew what he had to do.

A few minutes later, fireflies began to blink into existence, flitting about through the nighttime Warren.  Aster yawned, and decided he’d do it tomorrow.  Releasing Jack’s hand, he stretched out across the grass, and made to stand up.

“Where’re you going?” Jack asked, rolling over onto his stomach.

“It’s getting dark, Jack. Time to tuck in.”

“No,” Jack said easily. “Let’s stay out here.”

Aster paused in his stretching with his arms extended above his head.  He glanced down at Jack, and saw the boy staring up at him, asking silently with his eyes.  The fireflies drifted past his face, the lights of their tails reflecting in the blue gaze. His skin looked so soft surrounded by their golden glow, and Aster couldn’t look away.

He dropped his shoulders, arms falling to his side.  Feigning a resigned sigh, he sat back down.

“Fine,” he said. “But don’t complain tomorrow if the grass makes you itch.”

Jack snuggled close into Aster’s side.  “Thanks, Aster,” he murmured, smiling against the fur.

Aster buried his nose in Jack’s hair, sniffling quietly.  “Anything for you, love.”

*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*

Aster’s hole opened up as close to the top as he could manage.  The cold wind buffeted his fur violently, and immediately the Pooka shivered. Snow whirled around him in small twisters of storm, and Aster stared out over the expanse of clouds beneath him as the hole closed behind him.

“Crikey,” he muttered. “It’s bloody summer and it’s still cold as North’s beard up here.”

He turned his gaze to look up.  The peak of Mount Everest towered above the ridge, the snow blowing off of it in sheets. Around Aster the sky was already darkening, thank goodness for time zones.

Well, it didn’t seem like too much of a climb from here.  Steeling himself to the cold, Aster began his trek across the rock.

His feet sank into the snow, his fur flattened against him by the wind.  Wrapping his arms around himself, Aster pressed on. There weren’t many obstacles; this part of his plan was so much easier than he’d anticipated.

It’s not that Aster had never been to the peak of Everest before, although he hadn’t been since the humans had named it such, it’s just that he wasn’t particularly fond of it. But he’d learned by now that for Jack, he’d do anything, and this was very low on his list of things he despised. Honestly, it was only a bit of cold.

Aster looked over his shoulder, thinking of Jack.  The boy had gone off somewhere after they’d woken up, something about asking Sandy for help. Aster didn’t really mind; it saved him from having to explain his own expedition.

A sea of clouds surrounded the mountain at this height, and it was like looking over a rolling mass of the softest cotton, with small islands of rock jutting just out of the white curtain.  While the people below were certainly having a cloudy day, for Aster it looked spectacular.

Above him, the sun was setting, painting the sky a range of color from yellow to red to black. The colors shifted constantly, getting darker with each passing second.  By the time he reached the peak, one leg propped up higher than the other in the snow, the sky was a deep purple, quickly fading to black.

For a moment, the world was dark, pitch black above the world, the moon somewhere beneath the clouds. But then, a small flash of light appeared in the darkness.  Aster held his breath and watched as another appeared, and another, stars all blinking into existence brighter than fireflies and billions more to count.  One by one, the Constellations awoke, and Aster stared in awe at the remnants of the Golden Age.

“El-Ahrairah’s beard,” Aster whispered, eyes wide.

It had been two long since he’d looked upon these faces.

Suddenly, the stars shifted, giant celestial shapes rotating in the air to face Aster. They moved like water, flowing through space to change their direction.  They peered down on the mortal world, and Aster couldn’t help the jolt of fear in his heart at the sight.  The Constellations were more than gods; they were the beginning of the Universe, and they were looking at him.

One of them spoke, it’s voice not really a sound, but a vibration that passed through the air in an ambient wave, rippling the clouds with the force of pulsing words. They rumbled deep in Aster’s chest, pulling at his Core.

“ _O, Pooka, it has been eons since we have last seen one of your kind. We had thought them gone._ ”

Aster swallowed, realizing he was shaking.  He shifted his foot propped up higher on the ridge, unable to look away.  “They – They are,” he stammered, his voice quiet. He knew that the Constellations could hear his words.  “I – I’m the last.”

He couldn’t tell their expressions by the stars, but something changed in the atmosphere, becoming more remorseful.  A silence passed through each of them, before they spoke again.

“ _We mourn, yet we give you thanks for your survival._ ”

“Ah,” Aster spoke up, “It’s not me you should thank.  MiM gave me this life, and the people of this planet sustain it.” He found himself turning to the more formal language he’d used in the Pookan military.  It came to him more easily than he would’ve thought, jolted into his mind by the shock of the great beings before him.

“ _Then we give the young Tsar our thanks.  He has aided the Universe greatly with his actions._ ”

Aster swallowed again as the Constellations feel silent.  Now that the general formalities were out of the way, Aster couldn’t find the words to continue.

“ _What is it you seek from us, O, Pooka?_ ”

“Ah, I,” Aster worked his throat, still unsure.

The Constellations seemed to laugh, their stars twinkling brighter.

“ _You have guarded the First Light, have you not? The young Lunanoff had reassured us, but now we are certain.  For that, we are in your debt.  Any wish you have, we will do our best to grant._ ”

“I,” Aster began, “I want a star, please, if it’s possible.  For my mate.  I live underneath the surface, see, and at night… I – I wish for a star.”

The Constellations were silent.  But then, the stars twinkled even brighter, bright flashes in the night sky, and Aster thought of Jack, with the pure mirth that filled the sky.  But still, the great beings said nothing.

“It – it is possible, right?”

“ _Yes, it is possible.  One star has been sent to your Earth before, by chance.  You may know its pilot._ ”

“Are you talking about Sandy?”

“ _Indeed.  Sanderson was a great Star Pilot.  Now he is more humble in his occupation, yet he converses with us often.  Typhon was lost to us since then, but it is quite easily possible to grant your wish._ ”

For the first time since the Constellations had appeared, Aster felt elated joy fill his chest. He nearly leapt into the sky, if not for the narrow perch he held on top of the mountain.  Instead, he settled for smiling as bright as possible, and he cried, “Thank you!  Thank you, so much!”

“ _Are you sure this is your wish?  It is not nearly as valuable as your actions for this Universe. Our debt to you is worth much more.”_

Aster shook his head. “A star is all I need. I have want for nothing else.”

“ _Very well._ ”

With those words, the atmosphere began to quake.  It felt like a large ripple throughout the entire sky, and Aster gasped, kneeling down to clutch at the snow beneath his paws.

Above him, a new pinprick of light sparked into being.  It flared bright, becoming larger and larger, twinkling high in the sky. Aster straightened up again, and the light became blinding.  All of a sudden, it dimmed, as the star descended down to Earth.

The light shrank, a small sparkling flame in the air, as it fell down to where Aster stood. Aster extended his arms, accepting the star that came to rest in his paws.  It was beautiful.

Aster’s vision blurred, and he blinked away the tears he found welling behind his eyes.

“Thank you,” he murmured, looking up into the faces of the Constellations. “Thank you.”

“ _You are welcome, O, Pooka._   _However, we are still indebted to you. For today you have reassured the Universe that the great Pookas, the Guardians of the First Light, have not perished. Go now, as we bid farewell to you, O, Pooka_ , _E. Aster Bunnymund, Warrior of the Golden Age.”_

“Yes, farewell,” Aster agreed, nodding goodbye.

As he turned away, however, they Constellations spoke up again.

“ _We request for you to visit us again soon, O, Pooka. We would like to converse once again with yourself and your mate._ ”

Aster felt his cheeks heat up under his fur.  “Ah, well, I’m sure Jack would love to come and meet you all.  He’s heard your stories.  I’ll bring him by.”

“ _Make sure you do._ ”

And with those final words, Aster nodded his assent, descending down from the ridge, cradling the shimmering star in his palms.  With two taps of his foot, he opened a tunnel back to the Warren.

*-_-*-_-*-_-*-_-*

What he found back in his home made him stop in his tracks.

Jack was flying through the air with his staff extended behind him, streams of Dreamsand following his every movement in a trail through the Warren.  Aster stared, gobsmacked, as the golden flecks of dust gravitated towards the cavern ceiling, embedding themselves into the rock.

“Jack!” Aster called, walking further into the Warren.

The snow sprite stopped in midair at the sound of his name, the dwindling line of Dreamsand freezing behind him.  He looked around, twisting in the air, before he saw Aster.  Immediately, his face broke into a wide grin.

“Bunny!” he shouted back. He turned back to the following clump of Dreamsand and swung his staff in a wide arc, the shepherd’s crook cutting through the cloud.

The last of the sand dispelled, rushing towards Aster and around him in a gust of wind. He spun around just to watch it all disappear down the cave tunnels for the surface.

Jack tapped on his shoulder, having set down on the grass behind him.

“What’s all this, Snowflake?” asked Aster, gesturing around at the general everything.

But Jack wasn’t paying attention.  His blue eyes were drawn to the star in Aster’s paws.  “What’s that?” he asked, reaching out his free hand, slowly.  The light of the star glowed brighter as Jack’s hand neared it, and it painted his pale skin gold.

“I got it,” Aster answered, “for you.”  He was still staring at Jack’s face mesmerized by the wonder in his features. He knew then that he’d made the right choice.

“For me?” Jack breathed, his gaze tearing away from the star to stare, wide-eyed, at Aster. Something unreadable lingered in his expression, and Aster’s eyes darted between the boy’s. “What is it?”

Aster cleared his throat, swallowing.  “It’s, ah, it’s a star. The Constellations gave it to me.”

For a moment Jack was silent. Then his eyes dropped back down to the star in Aster’s paws.  He looked up once again, frozen still.

Then his face broke out into a smile, and he started laughing.  Not just laughing; he was full on clutching his stomach, backing away from Aster as he heaved out great gulps of air in his mirth.

“Jack, Jack, what’s so funny?  What’s happening?” Aster asked, suddenly concerned.

“I – I just,” Jack choked out.  His hysterical laughter soon died off, and with deep breaths, he straightened up.  He reached out, took one of Aster’s paws, and pulled him along, towards the tall hillside.

“That’s what I was doing today,” Jack explained, smiling back at Aster as they walked. Aster had the star tucked close to his side, cradling it with his elbow.  “I told Sandy about the stars.  I asked him if I could have some Dreamsand, since it glows a little at night. I know it’s not the same as actual stars, since everything is gold and stuff, but I figured… An actual, star, really Aster?”

Aster’s ears fell, and they came to a stop at the top of the hill.  “Do you not like it?”

Jack gaped. “Are you kidding? I love it!” he exclaimed, rushing closer to Aster.  He paused abruptly, looking Aster in the eye.  “I love you,” he breathed.  He pressed a soft kiss to Aster’s lips, before taking Aster’s paws, drawing them and the star between them.

“Now,” he said, drawing away.  He looked down at where his hands rested beneath Aster’s paws.  “How exactly to we install this thing?”

“Install?” Aster asked, confused.  “What are you talking about? This ain’t a computer program, Snowflake.”

“Oh MiM, we need to sort out your vocabulary,” Jack muttered.  “I meant how’re we going to get this” – he nodded down at the star – “up there?”  He looked up at the cavern ceiling, where golden flecks of Dreamsand were now invisible against the rock.

As in in answer, the star suddenly glowed brighter.  It began to pulse with light, and both Jack and Aster stared down at it, frozen in awe.  The small ball of light floated over their palms, and then all at once it shot up into the air.

Jack gasped, and Aster would be lying if he said he didn’t feel the same.  The star arched into the air, high, high above them, before it burst like a firework across the Warren’s ceiling.  The shards of the star darted across the cavern, billions of pieces striking the grains of Dreamsand embedded in the walls.

It looked like snow. Every speck of Dreamsand flared a bright white, clustered together in Constellations of light and space. For a long, still moment, it looked like the heavens themselves had opened up across the Warren, stretching out into the distance all around them until they couldn’t be seen anymore, arcing all the way to the very center of the Earth.

And then the stars all began to dim, adjusting until they twinkled lowly against the rock. Aster stared in awe, entranced by their beauty as they faded away in the presence of the First Light.

He and Jack both let out a breath, and they met each other’s gaze on top of the hillside.

“It’s beautiful Aster,” Jack said quietly, barely a whisper in the still air of the Warren. “Thank you.”

“Anything for you, Jack,” Aster replied earnestly.  He pulled Jack closer, and said with as much honesty as he could push into his words, “I love you.”

That night, they lie awake, talking as they curled together on the hillside underneath a blanket of stars.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday Corgi! Sorry it's a little late. I was gonna have it finished last night/this morning, but then... history project. And not the fun kind. XD  
> I hope you have a great birthday with tons of happiness, and wish you many more! :) Love you!


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